City Council Hosts Last Meeting of 2018

Martensville City Council hosted their last meeting of 2018 on Tuesday, December 18th. The meeting saw a list of last week’s Committee of the Whole items get approved going into the New Year. The first item to be approved was Director of Corporate Services Leah Bloomquist’s request from last week regarding a replacement server for the City of Martensville. The City has an IT replacement plan, which budgets for an upgrade every 3-5 years and the current server was purchased in 2015. During its time, it has met the needs of the City until recently, where staff experienced some issues. The request for a new server will provide additional space, as well as room for future needs. The 2019 budget included the replacement; however, Bloomquist requested that the approval be made prior to 2019 in order to ensure no further complications occur. Council was in favor of the replacement.

Bloomquist also spoke to Council at the December 11th meeting regarding a new phone system, as their current plan is set to expire this January. If they renewed with their current provider, they would see a substantial price increase of 36%. Bloomquist researched other options and through the City of Martensville’s IT providers, Graycon, they found another option using a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). This new option would allow for additional features including conference calling, mobility options, centralized system administration, video conferencing, document sharing, instant messaging and voicemail to text or email. Council approved this request and a 5-year lease will be signed with Graycon and Avaya Canada Corp for the Powered by Avaya Hosted Cloud Solution.

Ted Schaeffer, Director of Recreation and Community Services, spoke to Council last week regarding having a keyless entry system installed for City Hall, which would create future cost savings when employee’s keys are lost, or an employee fails to return a key and they are required to re-key the lock and re-distribute keys. In addition to saving money, this feature will also provide the ability to track users through key fobs and instantly activate, or deactivate fobs as required. Initially, the keyless entry would be installed at City Hall, and if successful would be looked at for other locations such as the MAP, Sports Centre and North Ridge Community Centre in the future. Council was in favor of this change.

Schaeffer also came to Council with a request from the Martensville Curling Club (MCC) to extend their liquor license to include the upper mezzanine on the arena side of the rink. When the request first came through this past June, Council had some questions and concerns, which the MCC tended to and during the December 11th meeting, all Councillors were in favor of approving the request. In the request, the MCC suggested paying the City of Martensville a one-time fee of $2500 for the use of the space, however, City Council determined that they would prefer to let the MCC utilize the space for the remainder of their season and evaluate payment terms from there.

With the City of Martensville working on finalizing their Vehicle for Hire bylaw, some changes were requested to be in line with provincial standards set in place, which were also approved. See more on this on page 2 of this week’s issue.

Council will meet again on January 8th and all residents are invited to attend meetings to learn more about what is happening within the City of Martensville. Agendas can be viewed prior to meetings by visiting www.martensville.ca.

City Council Hosts Last Meeting of 2018 was last modified: December 19th, 2018 by Shanine Sealey

Shanine Sealey has always had a passion for reading and writing. Growing up with a librarian for a mother, and working in a library as her first job at age 15, that passion continued to grow. After moving to Martensville in 2006 and working at the StarPhoenix for several years, Shanine was given the opportunity to join the team at the Martensville Messenger in 2011. From there, she fell in love with the world of newspapers. In 2014, Shanine and her co-worker Jocelyn Ottenbreit decided to purchase the Martensville Messenger, as they both felt it was an important part of the community and they wanted to continue its legacy within the City. Shanine has had the opportunity to meet so many amazing members of this community because of the Martensville Messenger, which is something that she is extremely grateful for. Her responsibilities include; reporting on local news, weekly production of the newspaper and day to day operations within the business.